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Nolan. My Nolan. Was going to kiss me.

Our chests touched, we were so close.

“This is a line, once crossed, it will be hard to step back from,” he warned.

I agreed, but didn’t care. “Cross it.”

Letting go of my hands, he grabbed my cheeks, held me steady, and just before Nolan’s head descended, our eyes locked. They were Riven’s eyes, not Rowan’s. A version of my best friend I never even knew existed.

All thoughts of “friend” Nolan evaporated the second our lips met. Before I knew it, my back was against the wall of his entranceway, my hands pinned above my head. Our tongues clashed, and Nolan’s strength answered every doubt as he pressed his body hard against mine.

“I had no idea,” I breathed as his fingers tightened against the rapid pulse in my wrists.

He lifted his head to look up at me. “Too much?”

Trust him. This is Nolan.

“Not enough.”

This chuckle was nothing like the last one. Devious and exhilarated, it also warned that I was about to get what I asked for.

One second, I was against the wall. The next, Nolan had lifted me from the ground and cradled me in his arms like a baby, as if I weighed nothing.

“Lena,” he said, striding toward the stairs. “I am going to make up for lost time by giving you the absolute ride of your life.”

Was he really carrying me to his bedroom? As I looked into his eyes, trusting him down to my very soul, I believed every word.

“Have you always been like this?”

“I’ve always had it in me,” he said, striding into his bedroom. “If that’s what you're asking.”

It wasn’t, exactly. But I probably didn’t want the answer to the question, anyway. None of it mattered.

“By the time I come out of my closet, you better be as naked as the day you were born.”

My jaw dropped as he strode toward the closet. With the rain pounding on his windows, the only light from a sole lamp beside his bed, I simply stared at the spot where he’d just been standing.

This was Nolan?

“I don’t hear you undressing, Lena.”

Holy shit. Heart racing, I tore off sneakers and did exactly what he’d told me to do but was only down to my bra and undies when he emerged.

With two neckties.

“Mmm,” he said, taking off his socks. “Not quite.”

His shirt followed.

“What are you planning to do with those?” I asked despite knowing the answer.

“Tying your wrists to the bedpost,” he said as if we were talking about fixing my roof. “And if you don’t take off those sexy as hell undergarments, I’m going to tear them from your body. And tie your ankles down too. Your choice.”

A vision of me sprawled on his bed with every limb immobile was almost enough to consider ignoring him. Especially as he’d taken off his sweatpants and stood before me, all six abs on full display, in a pair of navy boxers that left little to the imagination.

“I’ve never seen your dick before,” I blurted, my fingers fumbling with my bra straps.

He made an ‘oh yeah?’ sort of expression as my bra dropped to the floor.